One Question to Mill!

If Mill was alive and i was able to ask him him one question, the question i would ask would most probably ask is why he made such an semi-easy concept theory into a overcomplicated, un interesting, and not well structured writing. The writing is extremely difficult to read and comprehend, if you want to explain such a detailed subject and get your message across, i think his work should have been more in “lamans” term. so the average can comprehend the message you are sending across. Mill has it made it so difficult to read, that instead of reading a passage the class is practically deciphering it word for word. plus i would also expect a writer to be well organized and not jump from one example to another with out fully defining his first example.

Self-Sacrfice Noble?

Group 3 presented Mills passage stating if Self Sacrifice is valuable. According to me i think self sacrifice is morally the best act a person can do. If one sacrifices his/her own pleasures for the happiness of others it can be considered a very noble thing. An example of self sacrifice, occured in my hometown that was regarded as a very noble act amongst alot of people in our community. A couple of my friends and I were at Long Beach, enjoying a beautiful summer day. Someone amongst the group decided to throw around the football along the beach just for fun. A long pass from my friend Fahad to his Cousin Osama, led Osama to go in deeper in the ocean, when he was caught in a riptide. He started screaming and waving towards us who were not in the water. Fahad his cousin immediately thought something was wrong and headed in to save his drowning cousin. But unfortunately he also got caught in the riptide. Both of them had drowned right infront of us. but the courageous act of Fahad will never be forgotten. He actually sacrificed himself to save his cousin but unfortunately none of them prevailed. Fahads’ body was recovered a couple of hours later and his cousin Osama’s body was recovered 4 days later along the beach. Self Sacrifice is a very noble thing to do. If Fahad had prevailed in saving the his cousin he would have been considered a Hero. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Another example of Self Sacrifice would be giving charity, if a person gives charity, he is giving up his happiness to increase the happiness of other less fortunate people. Mills also shows the people can live without happiness, but if they live without happiness it would be a factor that they would be bringing overall happiness to everyone else besides themselves. And that is the reason why people can live without happiness according to Mills.

Can it make any more sense?

In class we were divided into groups and given a passage of Mills’ to Analyze. The objection of our passage was. if Happiness was attainable? The objector of our passage claims that Happiness is not a rational purpose in life because, it is never attainable. But Mills’ on the otherhand says that Happiness is basically measured on a scale. The bottom of the scale being more pain, and the higher you go up the scale it’s more pleasure/happiness. Mills says people conduct their actions to stay farther up the scale to more happiness. He also goes on about saying that it happiness comes in burst or spurts lasting from hours to several days. But it’s usually never steady. People are usually never constant on the scale, people fluctuate from going to Pain/Unhappiness to Pleasure/Happiness. People competetively try to get as far up the scale more often, to acheive maximum happiness from the situation they’re given or are in.